|
This page: Craft vs. Inspiration
'I was never so bone-headed to think that songwriting actually got you girls.'
Craft vs. Inspiration
How old were you when you began thinking that you might be a songwriter?
I resisted that for a long time. I got my first guitar when I was 12, although I never really picked it up. Then when I was 18 I borrowed a friend's electric guitar and some pedals, and I would just sit in front of the amplifier, making noises. That's a weird experience, when you find something all of a sudden that feels whole to you, and you didn't even know that something was missing. Eventually I would start trying to figure out other people's songs. It just felt natural and old. With going to school and trying to figure out who I was going to be, it seemed like a logical option.
So the work picked you, not the other way around.
I think that's how it happens. A lot of people come at music from a lot of different angles -- ego, or lack of. I like to think that the best ones are where it becomes a limb. That's what it was like for me. I mean, that whole idea of it being about getting girls … Well, of course it was about getting a girl's attention, but I was never so bone-headed to think that it actually got you girls.
Can you remember how you felt when you wrote your first song?
I can't really remember the very first song I finished, but it was exciting, and in the privacy of my room I thought it was great stuff. When you start writing, you feel like Christopher Columbus on some level.
You've said that "Watch Your Step" was one of your earliest songs.
That's right. I've said from time to time that it was the first, but it was definitely in the first group of songs. I think it was the sixth or seventh song I'd ever written, but it was the first one where I felt my own identity was coming in. I was 19 years old. It sounds like a young song to me; it's kind of a hard song for me to listen to now.
Do the songs on the new album strike you as substantially different from the ones on the first album?
There's a little more conservation of language on the new one. I'm proud of that, when I measure it against people who I think are great writers. There are some really interesting rhyme schemes too. Of course, that's not forced; you can't design that sort of thing. If it was designed, it wouldn't feel comfortable. Some writers are real craftsmen -- Leonard Cohen is an amazing craftsman of rhyme scheme and being true to the rhythm of each sentence. I'm not like that; I just hope that it lands there when I'm done. In retrospect, I feel like there are some real successes and some interesting rhyme schemes -- and songs that don't depend on rhyme at all, but the words seem like they were meant to be next to each other.
Is there a song on the new album that illustrates how you've come to write lyrics more economically than on May Day?
A song toward the end, "Still, Part 2." That's a song where I got three-quarters of the way done and the initial inspiration had left, but I was so in love with the first three quarters that I felt like I had to finish it. There was an awareness of what I'd already set down and the rhyme scheme and the rhythms and whatnot. I knew that I wanted to say something different from what I had said so far on the two records.
As you listen to "Still, Part 2," do the inspired verses sound different to you than the ones that you had crafted out?
That's one of the rare times that worked. A lot of those songs will never be heard, where I had the initial inspiration, and then as quickly as it's there, it's gone, but I realize I'm onto something.
To my ears, "Still, Part 2" could have worked with a different kind of arrangement. The lyrics are reflective and maybe a little sad, yet you have this steady, throbbing beat going throughout the song. Why did you decide to match that kind of arrangement with those kinds of words?
That was one of the few songs that we recorded a number of different ways. There's a certain sentimentality to those words, and it was easy for the arrangement to get really syrupy. But one of my favorite recordings of all time is a song called "Stay" by the Blue Nile. I think it's perfect, not necessarily because of the sounds but because of how the panic in the music follows Paul Buchanan's panic in the song. I wanted to capture that. I probably borrowed quite a bit from "Stay," but I wanted it to have that feeling.
The one song on East Autumn Grin that seems to reflect traditional songwriting craftsmanship is "Sadlylove," because it has an instrumental hook.
Are you talking about the piano part?
That's it.
That was Motown. I wanted to record a Motown sound, although it came out sounding like "Walk Away, Renee" [laughs]. But it was very conscious: There's a "sugar pie, honey bunch" [i.e., "I Can't Help Myself," by the Four Tops] guitar lick in the third verse. But, hey, Smokey Robinson is a very craft-type writer, yet really, really good. And there was some pretty dark stuff going on in his songs, even the love songs.
Is it a sign of your progress as a songwriter that inspiration is less essential than it once was in your process?
I would hate to think that. John Hiatt is somebody who seems to be really good at both, but you can feel the difference in those parts of his songs. I've always wanted to keep it more on the moment than on the craft of it. There's too much craft in songwriting today -- and bad imagery.
Why do you think that's happening?
Sometimes I'm afraid we're running out of songs [laughs]. Maybe we've exhausted the soul of music. It's taken some hits over the years, with some bad, bad songs.
Why does the public seem content with so much mediocre material?
I think it's a mirror to what's going on in people's minds. Ultimately, songs should be entertaining, but if you're going to be entertaining, you can't be manipulative.
Entertainment can be trivial.
Not if there's real joy behind it. I don't think Little Richard is trivial. But the Backstreet Boys and all that stuff, it's manipulative crap. There's nothing real about it. I would think that the public would be insulted by that, but they're not. And I don't understand why.
One might have faith that today's Backstreet Boys fans will develop more mature musical needs in a few years.
I hope so, you know? But I find it hard to believe that the same people who were buying New Kids on the Block were buying U2 a few years later.
Have you ever been influenced or distracted by commercial trends in songwriting?
I've been frustrated by trends. Like haircuts and jewelry and pants, that kind of songwriting shows the lemming quality of human beings. I've never tried to pursue a trend. I don't buy a record that everybody's raving about, unless I like it. So I refuse to do that.
Next Page: Formulas for Songwriting....
|
